Aggregators aren’t in business to support manga – their primary income is from advertisements. These companies could care less about the content. They just host files and get paid. But a publisher supported system that redirected readers to paid or sponsored content would be a step in the right direction.

I think that some people wouldn’t know about some manga on the market without having an aggregator, though. And a lot of them don’t know that they are available in print because they’re not advertised where they’d be exposed to them or they live somewhere that it’s difficult to get a hold of print copies. That’s why I think aggregator sites should also send the users to places where they can purchase legitimate copies when they can – even if they have to take that content down and replace it with a link to get a legal copy to show that they are trying to support the creator. That won’t stop people from going to another free source, but I think that it would end up creating more sales that way.

And yes, the whole world pirates, but the challenge is to make headway on the internet, which is transnational, and sometimes supernational. Publishers have to make inroads in a difficult environment too. Aggregation is no small task for publishers to take on.

I wonder if Ben just meant “the comic book store” when he said direct market, or if he meant the entire bookseller market. Twitter forces you to cram thoughts into 140 characters, after all.

I also agree that digital is the next step for manga. We have to be able to move forward and accept the changes that are happening to a business model that is over 100 years old.